Texas senator Ted Cruz has become one of the United States' most recognizable political figures over the past decade, especially after he competed with Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Those interested in politics may be most curious about whether or not Cruz will attempt to run for president again in the upcoming 2024 election, but a viral TikTok video sees the Texas senator asked about something completely unrelated to politics: Minecraft.
The viral TikTok video was posted by user ryantufford and has amassed over 1 million views at the time of this writing, with nearly 200,000 likes and 2,000 comments. In the video, an unknown individual is seen recording Ted Cruz as he exits a building and asks him what he thinks about the new Minecraft update. Cruz responded by saying, "I play a lot of video games, but not Minecraft, unfortunately."
Cruz has spoken about video games in the past. A story published by The Daily Beast in 2015 detailed Cruz's history of playing video games, where he spoke about growing up playing classic arcade games like Space Invaders. In the article, Cruz said that he played video games with his daughters, but won't allow himself to own a console as it would cause time management issues. The same 2015 piece by The Daily Beast also included comments from Cruz's college roommate David Panton, who said that he and Cruz used to play fighting games and Super Mario Bros.
There once was a time, not all that long ago, when it would have been virtually unheard of for a politician to play video games. And in fact, politicians have fought against video games numerous times throughout the years. Video games have been blamed for mass shootings and other violent acts by politicians on both sides of the aisle, though the first amendment has protected games from being censored or banned so far.
However, it's becoming more common for politicians elected to office today to have grown up playing video games, and since video games remain one of the most popular entertainment mediums in the entire world, one has to imagine that chances are good one day nearly every elected representative will be a gamer in some capacity.
Another politician known for their affinity for video games is congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who famously participated in an Among Us livestream on Twitch to encourage people to vote in the 2020 election and has tweeted about her League of Legends rank. In the years ahead, it seems likely that other politicians will use video games to appeal to the masses and relate to their constituents.
Source: The Daily Beast